SPS

Enterprise Energy Software

ORAP software makes it easy for energy industry clients to input and analyze data about their sophisticated equipment and technologies.

Bresslergroup redesigned a complex suite of digital data and analytics systems as a single, coherent Web application with an intuitive UI.

A single, user-centered digital platform makes achieving accuracy of data easier, more streamlined and error-proof — and frees the company behind it from time spent re-working and troubleshooting.

“Data First” has been Strategic Power Systems’ (SPS) philosophy since the mid-‘80s. This international leader in the complex, high-stakes energy market was suffering from fragmented legacy software systems. The systems in place didn’t communicate well with each other, and this was complicating efforts to maintain data integrity.

SPS was suffering from fragmented legacy software systems that didn’t communicate well with each other.

SPS identified this problem and partnered with Bresslergroup to resolve it. By taking a hard look at the specific needs of different types of customers, we were able to combine the company’s suite of divergent tools into a Web-based platform that streamlines onboarding and implementation for users, and ensures better data and fewer headaches for SPS.

Managing a gas-fired power plant means more than just switching on a turbine. Power plant owner-operators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) across the energy market rely on SPS’s powerful ORAP software to monitor fleets of equipment, keep an eye on high cost capital parts and maintenance, and analyze problems when they happen. But the experience of using ORAP had become disjointed and often counterintuitive; SPS approached Bresslergroup to figure out why.

The experience of using ORAP had become disjointed and counterintuitive.

Interviews with SPS employees and customers exposed several issues that sapped productivity and threatened data integrity. Customer onboarding, for example, required wrestling a dense Excel spreadsheet and lengthy online forms that addressed every possible plant configuration. Different ORAP modules had inconsistent or redundant interfaces and didn’t share data well, making them frustrating and time-consuming to use. They also failed to give plant managers and OEMs what they most wanted: a clear picture of what was happening inside their own facilities and fleets. The resulting confusion meant muddled data, which SPS employees often had to re-work.

The solution was a single, consolidated Web application redesigned to incorporate all ORAP modules under an interface based on current customer needs rather than past workarounds. Collaborating with SPS experts, the Bresslergroup team reworked the onboarding process for new customers across the board — starting with streamlining the SPS internal process, then offering a personalized, responsive onboarding experience. Static documents were replaced with responsive Web forms customized to each user’s situation. A drag-and-drop interface lends visual form to the dizzying array of turbines and parts in a working power plant or fleet.

The updated and newly tablet-optimized Field Service Module lets staff take familiar software with them to on-site maintenance visits and inspections. This ensures accuracy of data and reporting. Bresslergroup also worked with SPS to help craft a new brand identity that infuses every aspect of the ORAP experience, giving it coherence and currency while remaining recognizable to long-standing power users.

The resulting redesign impacts every aspect of ORAP’s capabilities and makes the experience of using the software feel like an intuitive, consistent whole. As SPS works to put it into action, feedback from developers and testers shows that the new Web application does more than make existing tasks easier – it lays the groundwork for SPS’s sustained growth in a market that’s growing more competitive, and for its renewed embrace by customers new and old.